Faced with making food for state troopers, workers walk out

Forced to choose between their beliefs and their jobs, four restaurant workers say, they walked out after they were threatened with being fired for refusing to help fill an order for a law enforcement agency that was policing nearby race protests.

The employees at a Columbus location of Condado Tacos, a regional Mexican chain, walked out this week over a catering order for 250 Ohio Highway Patrol officers who were working the protests of the Minnesota death of George Floyd.

Now, the modest actions by just a few workers have generated national publicity that led managers to temporarily shutter two locations of the rapidly expanding chain, and have sparked a conversation about free expression in the workplace.

Jake Widdowson, 25, clocked in for work Monday to learn of an order for 500 tacos for the patrol.

Widdowson opposed cooperating on the order in light of the Floyd protests and told the manager so.

Floyd, a black man who died while being restrained by police, has galvanized protesters of racism and police brutality across the country. The protests in Columbus have brought complaints of excessive force, including the use of tear gas and batons.

“I have been participating in the protests in Columbus, and seeing the way that police have been treating peaceful protesters, it was immediately clear that it was against my principles to be complicit in that order,” Widdowson said in an interview.

Store managers were supportive, Widdowson and other staff members said. Things escalated, though, when a district manager who happened to be visiting got involved, Widdowson said.

“Tell anyone refusing to work that they are fired,” Widdowson quoted the district manager as saying.

Widdowson and three other workers who also refused to help fill the order at the restaurant,...